Statistics Finland produces official statistics from European
Parliament elections containing main data on the candidates,
elected MEPs, those entitled to vote, those who voted and support
gained by the parties. Preliminary data have been published on the
Internet starting from the first European Parliament elections held
in Finland (1996); these statistics are updated by the figures of
the confirmed result. Statistics Finland’s statistics pages
on European Parliament elections also include tables in databases,
i.e. the StatFin online service, where from 2004 onwards data can
be found by voting district as well.

1.2 Essential concepts

Holding of elections

The European Parliament elections are held every five years in
all EU Member States. The European Parliament is the only
international organ that the citizens elect by direct elections.
National authorities are in charge of practical arrangements for
the elections. In Finland the organiser is the Ministry of Justice
that confirms the candidates and the election result. In Finland
the European Parliament elections are held on Sunday, 7 June.
Elections are held in accordance with the Election Act in force,
more details on the Ministry of Justice’s webpages
www.vaalit.fi (=> Legislation) and www.finlex.fi, Election Act
(714/1998).

Legislation

The elections for the Members of European Parliament (European
Parliament elections) are held in each Member State in accordance
with the national election legislation. In addition, the
stipulations of the EU’s election regulation (from 1976) are
followed. By the amendment made to the election legislation in
1998, all the provisions concerning elections were collected under
one act, the Election Act (714/1998), which came into force on 8
October 1998.

The main principles of holding elections

All elections in Finland are held following the principles
below:

The elections are direct. Electors (those
entitled to vote) vote directly for the person they want to be
elected.

The elections are proportional. In proportional
elections each party or other group gains seats in relation to the
votes cast for it compared with the votes cast for other groups
(not presidential elections).

The elections are secret. Secrecy of the ballot
means that neither the election authorities nor anyone else get to
know for whom voters have cast their votes or whether they have
returned an empty ballot.

The right to vote is universal and equal. A
universal franchise signifies that the right to vote only depends
on requirements which citizens usually fulfil. An equal franchise
means that every person entitled to vote has an equal right to
influence the election results. In general elections everybody has
one vote.

Voting is personal . The right to vote may not
be used through an agent.

Voting takes place in front of election
authorities.

The Finnish election system is a combination of voting
for individuals and parties , where a vote goes to both a
party and a person (not presidential elections).

Right to vote and eligibility

Entitled to vote in European Parliament elections held in
Finland are:

Regardless of domicile every Finnish citizen who has reached
the age of 18 not later that on the day of the
election, and

Every citizen of another Member State of the European Union who
has reached the age of 18 not later than on the day
of the election and whose municipality of residence, as defined by
law, is in Finland on the 51st day before election day, unless
he/she has lost the right to vote in the Member State whose citizen
he/she is. A prerequisite to the right to vote is, however, that
the person enrols with the voting register in Finland.

A person entitled to vote may only vote in one Member State in
the same European elections, either in his/her home state or in
his/her country of residence.

A Finnish citizen, who has registered as a voter in another
Member State, is not entitled to vote in the European Parliament
elections in Finland.

Persons with a right to vote can vote either 1) during the
advance voting period, or 2) on the election day on Sunday.

Eligibility

The provisions on eligibility are the same as in parliamentary
elections. Thus eligible is

every Finnish citizen entitled to vote and not legally
incompetent, and

every citizen of a Member State of the EU who is entitled to
vote and who has registered with and been entered into the voting
register in Finland, and who has not lost the right to enter as a
candidate in elections in his/her home state

However, a member of the European Parliament cannot
be:

A member of the Council of State;

A member of the European Commission;

A Judge, Advocate-General or Registrar of the European Court of
Justice or of the Court of First Instance;

A member of the executive board of the European Central
Bank;

A member of the European Court of Auditors;

The European Ombudsman;

A member of the Economic or Social Committees for the European
Community or the European Atomic Energy Community;

A member of the Committee of Regions;

A member of a Committee or another body responsible for the
permanent administration or finances of the Community as is
provided in the Treaties regarding the European Community and the
European Atomic Energy Community;

A member of the Board of Directors and Board of Governors of the
European Investment Bank and a member of staff of the European
Investment Bank;

An official or a staff member working in the service of a body
or a specialist organisation of the European Community;

A person who is in a post or a position that impedes membership
of a Parliament as is provided in the Constitution.

Nominationofcandidates

Candidates in European elections may be nominated

by parties entered into the party register, and

by voters’ associations established by people entitled to
vote.

The candidates enter as candidates in the entire country. Each
party may nominate not more than 20 candidates. Parties may
form electoral alliances. However, the maximum number of candidates
for parties forming an electoral alliance may be the same as for an
individual party, i.e. 20. All candidates are nominated for the
whole country. A voters’ association for the nomination of
one candidate may be established by at least 2,000 people entitled
to vote. Voters’ associations may form a joint list that can
have at most 20 candidates.

The Electoral District Committee of Helsinki compiles a combined
list of the candidates in which the candidates of all parties,
voters’ associations and joint lists are enumerated in an
order drawn by lot. The combined list contains the following
information on the candidates: number (beginning with number 2),
name, municipality of domicile, and title, profession or
position.

Seats

The parliamentary seats are divided so that the Member States
small in population have in relative terms more seats than large
Member States. In the 2009 elections a total of 736 members
will be elected to the European Parliament, of whom 13 will be
elected from Finland.

Parliamentary seats are divided between the parties, electoral
alliances and voters’ associations by the number of votes
gained by them in the whole country following the d’Hondt
method. The party, electoral alliance or joint list receives as its
first comparative index the total number of votes cast for the
party, electoral alliance or joint list concerned. The candidate
with the highest number of votes cast in the group then gets as a
comparative index the total number of votes cast for the group, the
second one half of the number of votes and the third one third and
so on.

Changes in constituencies and municipalities and
consolidations of municipalities

Changes in constituencies and municipalities and consolidations
of municipalities concerning elections of different years are
presented in the StatFin service and in the conventional European
Parliament elections paper publication.

Municipalities are placed into constituencies according to the
constituency division in force. The valid statistical grouping of
municipalities is used in the statistics (Statistics Finland,
Municipalities and Regional Divisions Based on Municipalities). In
the statistical grouping of municipalities, municipalities are
divided by the proportion of the population living in urban
settlements and by the population of the largest urban settlement
into urban, semi-urban and rural municipalities. The classification
is based on the definition of urban settlements made every five
years in connection with population censuses and on the data thus
obtained about the population living in urban settlements.

Urban municipalities are those municipalities in which at least
90 per cent of the population lives in urban settlements,
or in which the population of the largest urban settlement is at
least 15,000.

Semi-urban municipalities are those municipalities in which at
least 60 per cent but less than 90 per cent of
the population lives in urban settlements, or in which the
population of the largest urban settlement is at least 4,000 but
less than 15,000.

Rural municipalities are those municipalities in which less than
60 per cent of the population lives in urban settlements,
and in which the population of the largest urban settlement is less
than 15,000, as well as those municipalities in which at least
60 per cent but less than 90 per cent of the
population lives in urban settlements, and in which the population
of the largest urban settlement is less than 4,000.

Classifications used

Names of constituencies in European Parliament elections in 2009
are:

Helsinki constituency

Uusimaa constituency

Varsinais-Suomi constituency

Satakunta constituency

Åland constituency

Häme consitituency

Pirkanmaa constituency

Kymi constituency

South Savo constituency

North Savo constituency

North Karelia constituency

Vaasa constituency

Central Finland constituency

Oulu constituency

Lapland constituency

In the European Parliament elections Finland forms one
constituency. The candidates stand as candidates in the whole
country and the voters may vote for any candidate. However, the
votes cast in the European Parliament elections are initially
counted by national constituency and the election committee of the
constituency of Helsinki the combines the results of all
constituencies into a result for the whole country.

Statistics Finland's classification of municipalities.
Constituency, municipality group, municipality, voting district,
party (included in the Party Register), age of candidates and
elected MEPs, nationality and country of residence.

Data collection methods and data sources

Statistics Finland receives basic election data from the
Ministry of Justice’s election data system, the technical
implementation of which it has assigned to Tieto.

1.3 Acts, decrees and recommendations

The function of Statistics Finland is to compile statistics
describing conditions in society (Statistics Finland Act of 24
January 1992/48). These also include election statistics.
Statistics Finland’s Rules of Procedure define the Population
Statistics department as the producer of election statistics
(Statistics Finland’s Rules of Procedure, TK-00-1756-01).

Data on polling stations (polling station register), including
data on general advance polling stations and polling stations on
the election day;

Franchise data (voting register) for which data on every person
entitled to vote are collected by the Population Register Centre on
the 46th day before the election day. The voting register
includes of all entitled to vote the data (e.g. name, personal
identity code, constituency, municipality of domicile and polling
station) included in the Population Information System on the
51st day prior to the election day. The voting register gains
legal force on the 12th day before the election day at 12
noon;

Data on candidates (candidate register) in which the following
data on each candidate in the elections are entered: name,
candidate number, profession, municipality of residence,
party/voters’ association that has nominated the candidate,
and personal identity code;

A centralised calculation system to which the electoral district
committees and the central election committees submit their results
of the elections;

Statistics and information service by means of which the results
of the elections and other statistical data are transmitted to the
media and to Statistics Finland..

The confirmed data always differ somewhat from the figures of
the preliminary statistics. The ‘preliminary results’
after the election night serve users before the confirmed result is
obtained.

The results change once the result is confirmed in all respects:
by voting district, municipality, constituency, party and number of
votes gained by candidates, whereby even their mutual order may
change.

The first data, or preliminary statistics are published on the
Internet, in the StatFin online service and on the statistics pages
on European Parliament elections as soon as possible starting from
the election night. Election data by municipality and voting
district (from 2004) and the numbers of votes gained by elected
MEPs (on the constituency level) are entered in the StatFin
service.

On the European Parliament elections pages releases and tables
concerning the election in question are published in three
languages (Finnish, Swedish and English). The second data, or the
final data are supplied to Statistics Finland after the election
result is confirmed. After the confirmation of the election result,
the confirmed data corresponding to the preliminary statistics are
released on the statistics pages on European Parliament elections
and the StatFin databases are updated..

Later on, a conventional paper publication, or corresponding
statistical tables, are also produced on the European Parliament
elections.

The new statistical grouping of municipalities (urban,
semi-urban and rural) was introduced starting from 1999. Prior to
that, municipalities were grouped as follows: towns and other
municipalities. Changes in constituencies and municipalities
between the elections have been taken into account in statistics
that have comparative data with the results of the previous
elections.

Election results are presented on the statistics pages on
European Parliament elections starting from the first European
Parliament elections in 1996. Preliminary statistics on European
Parliament elections are released on the statistics pages on the
Internet. In addition, the StatFin online service has a time series
on European Parliament elections starting from 1996 (NB From 2004
also data by voting district). The paper publication European
Parliament elections (see Chapter 5) contains as recurrent the
so-called basic tables on voting turnout and on the election result
by municipality for the election year that has comparative data
from the previous elections. Publications of different years
contain information on possible changes compared with the previous
elections, such as changes in constituencies and
municipalities.

The Ministry of Justice publishes information about the results
of different elections and the national candidate register on its
webpages (www.vaalit.fi). The statistics published by the Ministry
of Justice differ with regard to advance voters from those issued
by Statistics Finland, because they are defined on different
grounds:

the Ministry of Justice counts the number of advance voters from
the number of those entitled to vote, whereas

Statistics Finland counts the number of advance voters from the
number of all who voted.

The classifications used in the statistics can be found on
Statistics Finland's homepages.